Printable Pets

I have followed the evolution of printables for several years now. I signed up for Anne Vanture’s paper dollhouse minis ages ago because they were so detailed, adorable, and easy to make (if you want free printables for a range of dollhouse sizes, I highly recommend signing up for her monthly newsletter), and then it seemed as if the whole craft world imploded with ideas for printables.

Not all printables are created equal, however, and what you want to look for are high-quality, simple prints that can be printed on good quality paper. You may also want a specific kind of printable, so looking through Pinterest or other craft-heavy sites is a good idea.

Recently I was browsing through just such a website and I came across these absolutely adorable guinea pig printables. I’ve never had a guinea pig — I grew up with rabbits, cats, and dogs. But I had several friends who grew up taking care of their own guinea pigs and I’ve always thought them quite delightful. They’re like miniature pigs with their grunts and squeals, they’re soft, and they have quirky personalities. When you’re living in an apartment, however, or you have an older animal or one that wouldn’t get along particularly well with a guinea, you’ve got to resort to other measures — like printing out a few of these!

This is a great craft for older kids, as it does require some dexterity to fold and cut and tape these little guys together. But as long as you have patience and a good pair of scissors, you should be just fine. The first thing you’ll want to do for this project is make sure that you have good, strong paper, such as card stock. Print out the template using this paper and the guinea pigs will be sturdy enough to last quite a long time as long as they’re not handled too roughly.

You can of course experiment with the paper strength as well as color — if you want to make a rainbow family of guineas, go right ahead. The original post shows a photo of one of the guinea pigs that was printed with an earth tone paper, giving the little family a bit of diversity in coloring. This is a great way to use up ends of paper reams (some scrapbook paper is cardstock, but a floral family with regular scrapbook paper would also be cute).

Carefully cut and fold the template together. You can add mod podge over it if you want it to be even more sturdy. Once you’ve cut and folded all the templates, you can put them together for a family photo shoot. The more, the merrier.

These would make a fun craft for middle-school kids on a rainy day, or for someone who loves paper crafts. The guinea pig family can be arranged on a shelf, in a cardboard box “cage”, or in an old goldfish tank. However you decide to display them, and whatever you use them for, they will be cute and cuddly forever. And you don’t even have to worry about feeding them or changing their bedding!

If you want to make your own family of guinea pigs, you can find the template with photos and instructions on The Craft Train.